Gpig

Check out her links to other pages. Especially her tour of the DEAD ZONE by motorcycle. (The Chernobyl area.) Fascinating. Gpig

Kingfish wrote: Excellent! (On both counts!) Actually, if you keep playing Emar's Big Operation long enough (and your Canucks go far enough south), you'll arrive at the Dives - where breifings grow on tress. Gpig

Excellent! Thanks. Now, let's see if I can reproduce that in a CMAK scenario . . . Gpig

Send them to the rear with one of your CREW units as escort. They usually stay hands up, unattended. But they will switch back to the other side again if they are unattended and freindly forces come near enough. I've recently caught as many as 15 prisoners, squads and teams included. Mostly due to surrounding them. It seems that when the morale is low and there are enemy units to their rear, pouring fire into them . . . they are more likely to surrender. Gpig

Anybody going to do an AAR (w/pics) of this battle? That'd be swell. Gpig

I've tried it a couple of times. Worked well in my recent CMAK game where I used 1 PzIV to push an immob. one up a slope for better LOS/LOF. It took 3 turns to get it right, but it worked. That immob MkIV was then able to contribute it's smoke and HE to the rest of the battle. The first time I tried it (as the russians), I ended up immobilizing the "pusher" tank, as well. Gpig

Please do post your maps! I LOVE playing QB's on realistic looking maps. Gpig

Here's another one (15 April, 1945 - from the South Alberta Regiment History), but this is a STUART vs KingTiger; . . . RHQ called them back with orders to circle around the other squadrons and secure a hamlet with the interesting name of Amerika. Their advance would take them over the ground of a small Luftwaffe airfield northeast of the village of Varrelbusch. Halkyard had been out that way in the morning with his tank and a Sherman troop. Halkie was in the lead and "it was a beautiful morning," George Gallimore recalled, when suddenly, "Right out of the ground from a ditch or dug out," like some primeval behemoth, lumbered their worst nightmare - a German Tiger II tank. Called the King, or Royal Tiger, this 68-ton monster from the Henschel factory at Cassel, with face-hardened armour plate up to four inches thick and an 88mm gun almost longer than their Stuart, represented the ultimate in Wehrmacht tank design. "Get in reverse, back up!" Halkyard shouted at his driver, Sonny Plotsky, just as the first 88 round hit nearby and the "dust rose, the tank was just full of dust." Plotsky threw the automatic transmission into reverse but the tank nearly stalled because his foot was on the gas pedal and there was some anxious seconds until the Stuart jerked backwards. Another round came in, and then another - that "bugger fired three shots at us and missed," remembered Gallimore, which allowed Halkyard to take cover behind a building where the four Shermans of their supporting troop were waiting. The South Albertas only had one weapon that could even damage a Tiger and that was a 17-pdr. so the suppoorting troop's Firefly moved up to fire and was just as promptly knocked out. [snip] RHQ was anxious for Danny "to press on." Having heard of a Tiger in the vicinity he was not about to take chances so decided to make a foot recce forward and dismounted from his tank. Years later he thought to himself, "You dumb bastard, they could have had snipers in those woods" but he arrived at the tree line, where in the fading light he could make out an armoured vehicle some eight hundred to a thousand yards ahead behind a blown bridge over a small creek. As he recalled, "I put the binoculars up to my eyes and I swear that the muzzle of this thing was sitting at the edge of my binoculars, it was so huge." Danny was looking at the same King Tiger Halkyard had enocountered that morning. Returning to his troop, he discussed the situation with Tom Milner and they decided to move the troop's two 17-pdr. tanks forward clear of the trees and open fire. This was done, and they immediately came under fire from the Tiger but just as quickly returned it. Carson Daley recalled that he fired "three shots and they ricocheted into the air off the Tiger and my knees were knocking something terrible." Tom Milner recalls firing eight rounds of 17-pdr. AP and that "either the first or the second did something to the gun in the turret, and the barrel was left pointing cockamamy." Danny remembers watching the 17-pdr. rounds go "wheww" and they just glanced off. Matters were not helped by RHQ, which prodded Danny by asking "how are you making out, we've got to move." Danny pointed out to them that, even if he got the Tiger, they would still need a bridge to get across the creek ahead. A few thousand yards away, the other troops in the squadron were monitoring the fight on their wireless and Bill Luton remembered "it was fascinating to sit there and listen to Danny McLeod masterminding the battle over the air and hear the firing, which was not far away. The pyrotechnics were not bad either. Danny now brought his two 75mm Shermans up to add weight to his fire. "We fired everything," he remembered, and "to this day, I cannot tell you what happened, whether an HE hit the muzzle brake and bent it back or it was a 17-pdr round that hit, but it was bent back about six inches." At this point the Tiger commander decided that perhaps discretion was the better part of valour and began to back away, but "backed a little more broadside to us" and Danny "thinks it was an HE round that set the engine compartment on fire." The Tiger began to brew. When it was over, Milner recalled, "a Tiger tank lay all shattered and in pieces, a barn had burned to the ground, and a house had been blown to bits." By now it was dark and Danny was ordered to pull back and Laager for the night. As they did so, Tom Milner remembers that a British SAS jeep pulled up beside his tank and the driver shouted, "Thanks, chaps, we weren't too sure how we were going to get around that corner" and then drove off into the darkness. Danny moved his troop back some distance and they "lit up the landscape" pouring HE into every flammable structure they could see. That done, they settled down for the night, having fought one of the most successful single-troop actions in the history of the South Alberta Regiment. It had been, the War Diarist concluded, "a ding dong fight in the failing light." Gpig

My opponent in a TCP game last night had some bad luck in our battle. I had just immobilized his flanking Panther (at the cost of one of my Shermans) rendering it pretty much useless. THen, he was racing a Stug from the opposite flank, in a straight line across DRY open ground when I heard the unmistakable BOGGING sound. Nice for me, unpleasant for him. I took advantage and raced my Wolverine up to point-blank range (from the side, of course) to dispatch it. Didn't seem fair to me. The only thing I can say was that maybe he was gonig FAST. But Dry ground and open terrain should be smooth sailing. I do always avoid unfavourable terrain with my AFV's if I can help it. If I HAVE to move through it, I use the MOVE command. Nice and slow. Gpig

Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Will each shrimp be modelled 1:1? (crosses fingers)

soft ground

LINK cmx2 thread x 12 @ 1800 posts per second = 3300 rounds per minute out of a maxim (though not in the bocage). Yay for CMBB! LINK Gpig P.S. 1:1!

So, how was it? Did I miss the debreifing? Gpig

Make sure they are within 40m. 30m if possible. (Throwing range.) Or hide them with a covered arc, covering the road/path of the passing tank. When the tank enters the covered arc, they'll pop up, hopefully with determination. Also, it doesn't hurt to actually TARGET the tank with your squad . . . might nudge them along . . . It helps if they are under command of a PL with a combat bonus (of course). Amd a morale bonus (duh). And a stealth bonus. (no!?) Gpig P.S. But yeah, mostly luck. If the tank is zipping by, they most likely won't throw the bundle. It helps if the tank is stationary, or stops.

I think that a scenario should be designed for one type of play in mind. It shouldn't be both. And it shouldn't be listed as being playable as both in the scenario description. (Although I understand that designers want to appeal to players, wether they be A.I. battlers or TCPr's.) Just played a byte battle off of Der Kessel that was listed as both. "Two Player or Axis versus A.I." I opened up the scenario and in the breifing it says best played as Axis vs A.I.. I played it as Axis vs A.I. and was not impressed with the A.I.. Although I still LOVED the battle, it was mostly due to the wonderful map and interesting force mix and mission. I killed off the A.I. pretty quickly. As it never used all of its assets. Now I have to try and find a human player to play it against. But it won't be the same. Gpig

And when you send your supply echelon back to Regimental HQ to pick up more Vodka, they return to the front lines with German bullets. (Or worse still, bullet HOLES.) Nyuk nyuk Gpig

I'd have made an Exceptional commander, Soviet forces, 1941. For about 20 min. So it seems that RECON (if any was done) accomplished by the RECON elements was passed along the old fashioned way. Runners/riders/fast transport back to RECON HQ, and from there by wireless onto the higher HQ? Thanks for the info. Gpig

OH yeah. I also remember reading that the checkpoint G.I.'s noticed that the "American" officers were sitting in the back seat of the jeep. American officers NEVER sat in the back of the jeeps. Front right passenger seat being the prime spot for officers. The Germans didn't know this of course (as all their officers always sat in the back, generally). (I'm guessing.) "Take 'em down, boys!" Budda budda budda BAM BAM BAM (k-ching!) Gpig P.S. Sorry, helping to pull this thread farther off topic. (Bad Gpig!)

I guess you could say that the Soviets in 41 didn't need Recon. Just wait, and the Germans will come to you . . . (bad . . .) Gpig

Hello.I don't have anything to help with your query, but I have another question. (furthering my education, and all.) Would the Recon Battalion have a Radio (or Radios) at the Battalion level? (In the Battalion HQ?) What was the state of Radio equipment within the Red Army in '41? Are you saying that the Recon Battalion did not have even one radio? That does seem to beg the question "what these battalions were doing." Thanks, Gpig

depends on the point man. If it was someone whom the squad wanted to waste, then sure. Death Verdict. But there were some point men I'm sure, whom the squad LOVED to have on point (and would never want to see perish). When I was in basic, my friend Rodnney was a natural. He was like the nose of a dog. He just seemed to be able to find where to go, and where NOT to go. He foiled an ambush on our squad. we ended up ambushing the ambushers. That kind of point man is priceless. I wonder if CMx2 will model . . .. nyuk nyuk Gpig

Heh heh. Just had to resurrect this thread. I played a QB versus a friend last night, and he had picked 6 Stugs (80mm front), 2 pzIVs and a Lynx. I had 2 KV-85s and 3 T-34 (76) None of my assets could hurt the stugs. I never got closer than 400 meters. I managed to take out one stug with a flank shot. My KV's just freaked and threw it into reverse. They too, were taken out by the stugs at 600 meters. My 85mm rounds bouncing harmelssly off of them. I lost the battle because I could not touch his armor, and he had the high ground. I couldn't shoot my infantry onto the objectives. Interesting side note, I played a battle against the A.I. recently (Lonely Country) and . . . ***SPOILER ALERT*** . . . . . . . . . I had 10 T-34's open up on 2 nasty (80mm) stugs in the first turn. I lost 1 of my T-34's but took out one of the stugs (this was about 600m) with a lucky "weak point penetration." The other sustained a "Gun hit," causing him to be ineffective for the rest of the game. Got lucky, there. Still, Hail-fire seems to help, if you can manage it. Gpig

I think that could be neat . . . ORDERS PHASE: Send your company 1st seargant (and his COMBAT/MORALE boost) over to 3rd platoon. Keep your Company Commander with 1st and 2nd platoon. (You could even attach the camera to your Sgt, as he runs through the shell bursts and tracer fire, in order to prop up 3rd plt.) Have individual COMMAND and CONTROL modelled 1:1. Watch your crucial (crack) sargent rally men within his own squad. Then turn to fire his thompson at the enemy. In Band of Brothers, Easy company attacks Foy under command of a lame-arsed CO (forget his name.) The attack falters due to lame-arsed C&C. But when Winters sends in Captain(?) Spears to take over command, the entire company rallies. The attack succeeds. Would CMx2 be able to simulate something like that? That'd be cool. I wonder if it'll involve a lot more units and orders to manage. Not sure THAT will be neat . . . Balance, eh? Can't wait to see how much FUN BFC will make it. Gpig (wish I had a URL to link to . . . )

What Lucho said. At least that way, I could play some of it. (And review it at the Depot.) Thanks! Gpig